Beyonder

Context

The Beyonder was the all-powerful instigator of the Secret Wars, a 1984 all-star extravaganza that pulled Marvel Comics from a tough financial spot. Omnipotent and coming from another universe, he stuck around for a bit, which often meant cosmic-scale trouble.

This profile focuses on the Beyonder as seen during Secret Wars and Secret Wars II during the mid-1980s. Later takes are mentioned but aren’t really in-scope.

Background

Real Name: Inapplicable

Other Aliases: Frank, The One Who is All, The One from Beyond

Marital Status: Inapplicable

Known Relatives: None, he’s all there was in his dimension.

Group Affiliation: None

Base Of Operations: mobile

Height: 6’2” Weight: 240 lbs

Eyes: Black/White Hair: Black

Powers and Abilities

The Beyonder was apparently the most powerful being ever to exist in this universe (although he was not native to this universe). He could do virtually anything. As such, he was limited only by the restrictions that he placed on himself.

He was shown to manipulate incalculable amounts of energy and create or rearrange matter on a planetary scale. He could heal any and all damage to himself, and while taking the visible effects of damage, could immediately heal himself and others.

He could negate any poison, correct any fault, and restore to life any being whose astral spirit was still available.

Furthermore, he could travel or send others anywhere, dimension or time, instantaneously, but seemed to be unable to create paradoxes in time. In theory, if he attempted to do so, he would destroy the universe, himself included.

His greatest displays of power were the killing of the entity named Death (and then resurrecting her) and the obliteration of an entire galaxy.

History

“I am from Beyond. Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours. Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish.”

With those words, the Beyonder appeared on the scene like nothing before him. Appearing first in a distant galaxy, he rearranged it, using parts of it to create a “Battle-world” and discarding the rest. Then he created two drifting space stations.

On one, he assembled a collection of those deemed “heroes” and, on the other, “villains”. In both cases, he made one strange choice. Among the villains, he placed a cosmic force of nature, Galactus. On the other side, he placed a seeming villain, Magneto.

Placing Galactus on one side would seem to have assured an easy win for that side and may indicate that, to the Beyonder, the difference in power between Galactus and all of the others was barely noticeable. This was more or less proven when he easily repulsed Galactus’s attack and rendered him unconscious.

The Beyonder had provided resources upon the planet that could be exploited by those on either side. But Doctor Doom used it to get aboard Galactus’s world ship and study it.

Doom schemes

Although Galactus noticed and removed him from the ship, Doom was able to use the knowledge he gained combined with alien technology on the planet and Klaw, a being composed of sound, to rig a device.

He knew Galactus had summoned his world ship. He deduced he would break it down and absorb its energy for an all-out assault upon the Beyonder. Galactus knew the Beyonder could end his hunger, his need to consume living worlds.

Awaiting the critical moment when the ship had been broken down to its base energy and Galactus was about to absorb it, Doom used his machinery to pull it away, absorbing it into himself.

Doom then used that power to make an all-out attack on the Beyonder himself. It was not enough and he suspected it might not be. But Doom used some of the power to jury-rig a trap into his armor.

After defeating Doom, mutilating and dismembering him in the process, the entity known as the Beyonder approached to study him, to better understand these mortal creatures. In agony, Doom sprang his trap, the device siphoning the Beyonder’s power into himself.

Demoted and Depressed

Unknown to him, the essence, the mind of the Beyonder, had survived. It moved from one person to the next by touch, possessing them until it got to Klaw, the one it really wanted.

Meanwhile, the rest of the villains had left for Earth, led by Owen Reece after Doom unlocked the full potential of his powers. Doom offered the heroes to join him. When they refused he killed them in one cosmic blast. But the Beyonder desperately wanted his powers back and grew cunning in his need.

Knowing Doom had to focus every moment to control the powers, he weaved a tale for Doom, a tale in which the heroes managed to be resurrected and would attack him again. The trick was that simply by telling the tale, he made Doom think about it.

Just like saying, “Don’t think about an apple. Whatever you do, do not picture an apple,” the very thinking of it made it reality. Beyonder/Klaw even tricked Doom into giving him back a fraction of the power to fight off the heroes. But as Captain America appeared and confronted Doom, Doctor Doom killed him.

However, he was losing control. Cap resurrected because Doom feared he would. As Doom totally lost control, the Beyonder’s essence leaped from Klaw and reabsorbed all of his power. The Beyonder vanished, leaving the heroes to make their own way home, his game become a harsh reality.

God Among Us

Sometime later, the Beyonder appeared on Earth. At first he took a form that was a hodgepodge of various heroes and villains or the forms of people he had met. Then he appeared to a man named Stewart Cadwall and explained that he was an entity from Beyond.

He was from his own universe, one completely separate from all of the various alternate realities of “our” universe. His was a universe larger than all of them together. But he was the totality of his universe.

In fact, there was no “him/ her/it” until he discovered the existence of our universe where there was diversity, separate beings and things. He sought to understand both this and himself now that he had/ was a “self”.

He started by giving Cadwall, an arrogant self-important individual, super powers. He was quickly defeated by Captain America who realized his powers came not from himself but from a lightning bolt shaped device he had been given. Separating him from it took away his powers.

Impressed by this, the Beyonder later started invisibly following Cap around and then formed himself a body that was an exact duplicate of Cap’s.

Arriving in New York, he walked through riots, people seemingly overwhelmed by hatred, though he was unaffected by it. He appeared briefly to Reed Richards as well as to Peter Parker. When a display window was broken by a brick, he climbed into a clothing store and put on a suit, for which he received a lecture from a bag lady for stealing.

Omnipotent Enforcer

Circumstances caused him to meet a local crime boss named Vinnie. The Beyonder became his enforcer. Through this experience, he discovered the joys of everything from sex to food and drink to human company. Vinnie soon told him that a small operation like this was beneath him and the Beyonder needed to move on to far bigger things.

The Beyonder did not grasp the irony that a mobster had just taught him the value of putting someone else’s best interests first. But he took it to heart and decided the best thing to do was to take over the world, a task he easily accomplished simply by willing everyone to love and obey him.

But he had already experienced enough of humanity that this quickly felt empty to him. He understood that people loved him only because he used his powers to make them feel that way.

He met a woman called “Circuit Breaker” who had a hatred of robots because she had been crippled by them. He was fascinated by the complex and deep desires that drove her. He decided he needed to understand such things and so he released his control of the human race.

He came to believe that things were better when they were earned and he resolved to earn the right to rule humanity rather than using his powers to take control.

He then approached the legal firm Nelson & Murdock about finding a legal means to purchase the entire planet. He also quickly realized that Matt Murdock was Daredevil and restored his sight as a “retainer” for helping him. Although initially elated, Matt turned down the job.

The Beyonder offered for him to keep his sight as a gift but Matt, perhaps knowing he could not do his job as Daredevil that way, demanded the Beyonder take it away again and he did. Meanwhile, Foggy Nelson had to admit there was no legal way the Beyonder could buy the planet.

Dazzled

The Beyonder went through a number of experiences including returning to Owen Reece who tried to explain what love was and then he met Alison Blaire, alias Dazzler, and decided to fall in love with her. Though it was just going through the motions at first, he then gave her half his power.

Scared and not knowing how to control it, she was killed. He resurrected her and, feeling concern, removed her memories of the power she had experienced and the death so she could go about her normal life.

His fascination with Dazzler continued, however. While she was battling a gang of villains, he appeared, having decided to become a costumed super hero and putting limits on the type and level of his powers.

But every time Dazzler seemed to be on the verge of defeating them, their powers doubled and then doubled again and so on, thereby making it impossible for her to beat them and justifying the Beyonder continuing to increase his powers.

Dazzler quickly realized their increasing powers were the Beyonder’s doing so he could save her. She refused to play the game anymore. He returned the villains to their true power level and restored the damage done in the fight, finally agreeing to leave her alone.

Explosive Relationships

The Beyonder met a young mutant girl who called herself Boom-Boom because of her ability to generate energy “time bombs.” Abused by her parents, she believed that everyone you loved sooner or later left or betrayed you.

Despairing over this view of life, he returned to the white blankness that was his universe, contemplating if it could really be called a place and if it even existed without him.

He considered going back to what he was but feared that he might lose awareness and consciousness if he did that. Then a “time bomb” Boom-Boom had planted when she hugged him before he left her exploded. He returned to her, at first angry but then amused at her joke.

He took her to find what she was looking for, Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

But when they arrived, Rachel Summers sensed who he was and he was attacked by the combined forces of the X-Men and New Mutants. While Boom-Boom ran away into the woods, he shrugged them off and drove away into the air in a car.

At the end of her rope, Boom-Boom built up a time bomb powerful enough to kill herself if the Beyonder did not return. As mentioned, her life had taught her that everyone who seems to care either betrays or abandons you. He came back rather than let her die.

He then took her to the Worldplex, a veritable “Temple of the Moneychangers” built beneath the place where the Celestials dwelt.

He challenged them to battle and finally threatened to destroy the universe right then and there if they did not fight him. He easily beat them and told Boom-Boom he only wished she could perceive the levels beyond the physical on which the fight was taking place.

She was terrified and wanted to return to Earth. He did everything to convince her to stay with him including making her better looking and even offering to make it so she was not a mutant. But she wanted to be who she was. She realized that whatever he was, it was just too big and incomprehensible.

He returned her to Earth, feeling a loneliness at not having her as a companion.

However, realizing the threat he could pose to the Earth, she asked him to appear at the campsite where they first met. There, she attacked him with a powerful time bomb while the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange also attacked.

They quickly realized he was not even fighting back and halted their attack, which was doing him no real harm to begin with. He turned and walked away, saying something under his breath about loneliness, repeating something that Boom-Boom had said to him.

It was not a wonderful life

Johnny Storm was horrified when a boy tried to imitate him because the Human Torch was his hero. But the boy had no powers. He “imitated” Johnny by dousing himself with gasoline and lighting himself on fire.

Johnny visited him in the hospital and was told he was not going to make it. The boy, Tommy Hansen, told Johnny that he was always Tommy’s favorite hero. He died minutes later.

The boys’ parents blamed Johnny. Despairing, Johnny was about to give up being a super hero. Then the Beyonder appeared and took him back in time where they could invisibly see Tommy’s life. It was a life of constantly being pushed around and not understood even by his parents.

His only escape was following the adventures of his greatest hero and idealizing him. As the Beyonder put it, Johnny did not destroy his life. That was a scapegoat for the parents. Johnny was the only thing in his life that gave him any hope at all.

Uatu the Watcher visited the Molecule Man, pleading with him to talk to the Beyonder and perhaps oppose him because he sensed the Beyonder’s plans were too extreme. Indeed, the Beyonder, with some prompting from a human friend, decided to destroy Death itself.

All the Great Entities of the Universe gathered to try to stop him but still he succeeded. But finally convinced that death was part of the natural cycle and that he could never end all the pain that death could end, he decided to bring it back but his human friend had to sacrifice himself by becoming Death for it to happen.

The Beyonder went to an island to think but a man thought it was a great idea and next thing, the island was populated with people just sitting and thinking as a new fad. While this was going on, Mephisto hatched a plan to destroy the Beyonder using super villains, one hero who hated the Beyonder and even the cooperation of Eternity.

The one hero was Ben Grimm and the plan failed because he could not bring himself to kill.

Wanting to die

Having encountered Dr. Strange, the Beyonder learned of trying to find completeness and this led him to Japan where he tried to achieve Enlightenment. He eventually decided the best way for him was to help other people fulfill their ultimate destinies.

Alas, for the Puma, his ultimate destiny was supposedly to kill the Beyonder and so the One From Beyond gave him the power to do it. But Spider-Man suggested that the Beyonder had reached the point where he wanted to die and perhaps was playing along with Puma’s ideas of his destiny that may or may not be his true destiny.

Because this generated doubt in both the Beyonder and Puma, Puma ceased to be powerful enough to kill the Beyonder

He was attacked by Rachel Summers wielding the power of the Phoenix but, as she ineffectually attacked him, he showed her visions of her past and forced her to face the fact that this was not her reality and he wanted to free her of the guilt she suffered for the loss of people in her own timeline.

In the end, she was not grateful because the knowledge was forced upon her.

Finally, in frustration at all of his failures to fulfill his goal of feeling complete, the Beyonder returned to Owen Reece. In a fit of rage, he destroyed the universe but, while talking him down, Owen undid the damage and brought everything back.

He then tried to get to the heart of the problem by exploring the Beyonder’s history only to discover that the accident that made Owen the Molecule Man opened a “pinprick” gateway between this universe and the Beyond Realm. Before that, the Beyonder had no awareness of his existence, no consciousness or sense of time.

But being able to observe events in the universe Owen lived in, he gained all of those things, awareness, consciousness and a sense of time passing. Furious at everything he has tried going wrong, he decided to give the universe a day to come up with any reason he should not just destroy it.

Mortality

Owen had suggested that his lack of mortality was the real reason he could not understand humanity and another person later suggested the same thing. The Beyonder returned intending to give the universe a reprieve only to be attacked by Owen who saw this as the universe’s only hope.

But even the power of the Molecule Man was not enough. To save Owen’s life, Marsha Rosenberg, Volcana, pleaded with the Beyonder to spare her life and take her physically. He laughed and drove her away but her ploy worked.

Seeing Owen emotionally broken by what he thought was Marsha’s betrayal, the Beyonder mocked him but spared his life.

Doctor Doom, while confronting the Fantastic Four, summoned the “Ultimate Power” to his side and the Beyonder appeared but Doom could not control him. The Beyonder was about to kill Doom when Reed Richards noted that Doom seemed to not have any idea who the Beyonder was.

Doom had been “dead” at the time of the Secret Wars on Battleworld. Reed surmised that the Beyonder had grabbed Doom from a point in the future and brought him there. That would explain why Doom had no memory of the events.

Uncertain that even he could survive such a time anomaly unchanged, the Beyonder sent Doom back in time to go through the events on Battleworld.

Finally, the Beyonder decided the only solution was to become mortal. He created a huge machine to hold his omnipotent power, becoming a mortal man. He immediately panicked and touched the machine, regaining his omnipotence. He then tried it again, staying mortal for a longer period.

But Mephisto chose this vulnerable moment to attack, appearing with a horde of demons. He surrounded the machine with fire that seared the Beyonder with agonizing pain when he tried to reach through it and burned his hand horribly.

But the Beyonder knew that Mephisto’s powers on Earth were mostly illusions and he defeated Mephisto on his knowledge alone, driving his hand through the fire and regaining his powers. Mephisto fled and the Beyonder contemplated his final decision.

Meanwhile, Owen Reece, having been visited by Odin and cosmic entities ranging from the Watcher to conceptual entities including Eternity, begging him to try to defeat the Beyonder where they, all put together, could not, came to a decision.

As Marsha returned, he knew he had to find the strength within himself and not rely on others. He went to finally face the Beyonder.

The risk and price of mortality

In an underground fortress, the Beyonder prepared to send himself through the machine and be reborn as a baby with all of his powers, starting life anew but still omnipotent. When Owen Reece arrived with many of the world’s heroes, Owen launched everything he had but it was not enough.

He managed to save everyone from the Beyonder’s retaliatory strike by putting up a force field and phasing everyone into another dimension momentarily. As the Beyonder gestated through the machine, some of the heroes tried to attack but Reed Richards and others tried to stop them from what could be the murder of an infant.

The Beyonder’s energies were unleashed, energies that would have destroyed the multiverse. But Owen opened a portal, channeling them back to the empty space that had been the Beyond Realm.

There, the energies acted as a “Big Bang”, causing a “new universe” to come into existence, one that would eventually evolve life and sentience, perhaps fulfilling the Beyonder’s needs in ways he never considered.

Later events

For years, that was the end of the story of the Beyonder. There has been more than one attempt to bring the Beyonder back but the problem is that they are dependent upon rewriting history.

In one version, he may have been an Inhuman and, in another, a cosmic cube. But some of these stories hinge heavily on his not having been remotely as powerful as what the original source material portrayed him to be.

More recent work has also rewritten history to reduce the powers of the Molecule Man, partly to make him less powerful than the Sentry without making Sentry a universe destroyer. But, again, these rewrites change the “canon” of what happened in Secret Wars and Secret Wars II.

Description

The Beyonder’s true form is nothingness. Thus, he originally had no true physical form such as those known to humanity. After coming to Earth, he mostly wore the physical form of an attractive, muscular male with black, curly hair wearing a green jumpsuit and a pair of high boots.

When he first arrived at the Earth, he was a blond male (in fact, he was a physical copy of Captain America) with blue eyes wearing a white body stocking, but soon adopted the more trendy dark stranger look. His clothing also varied between his different personas.

At the end, when he was intent on destroying the Universe, he still looked like a dark stranger, but wore lots of leather in red and blue colors in a trendy suit. He often sparkled of energy while engaged in the use of his amazing omnipotence.

Personality

Initially, the Beyonder was extremely naïve about human nature, and his early experience involved his discovery of such basic human concepts as hunger, money, and life. Once he mastered these concepts, he began to experiment with human values, creating villains such as Kurse, and falling in love.

Eventually, he found that he derived no satisfaction from his discoveries, got depressed about human nature and himself, and, in the end, threatened to destroy the universe.

When he first became aware of Earth and its denizens, the Beyonder had realized that he himself was not all that existed, he thus saw himself as incomplete and felt desire. As a consequence, the Beyonder’s driving force was always curiosity and the desire to understand things.

His main goal was always to understand the meaning, origin and reasons of the emotion of desire. He eventually concluded that desire comes from being an imperfect being. In his quest to study things and to experience things, the Beyonder used gadgets. He came to realize that he really liked gadgets himself.

When he first created a physical body for himself, he understood the need to listen to his body’s signals and responses, but couldn’t always understand what those signals meant. Experience, which the Beyonder found out early is a better teacher than mere observation, eventually taught him everything about a physical existence and sensations.

The straight-on approach meant that the Beyonder would try out every experience at least once to learn from it. Along the way, he built himself a superior new body capable of performing wondrous deeds.

The Beyonder always spoke frankly and directly, until he finally learned to lie. He was never satisfied for long, but always craved new experiences and constant change. In fact, he was too curious for his own good. When he was done studying humanity he found that it was driven by desire originating from incompleteness.

The Beyonder to his great frustration was unable to find his own place and meaning in existence and tried to return to the Beyond-Realm, from which he originally came, but found that he was unable to stay since he had already been tainted by feelings of desire.

He finally concluded that the only way he could be at peace was if all there is was him. Hence, he decided to destroy the universe, a task which ultimately failed and led to his apparent destruction.

Originating from nothingness and getting a bad start, the Beyonder’s sense of moral clearly wasn’t developed or working. He had no basis for good or evil. Once he had realized that he was much mightier than anyone he had ever met, he became quite arrogant in his power and believed that he was completely invincible regardless of the odds.

Also, while being the sum total of a whole universe, his understanding or intellect was by no means enlightened. He lacked several basic instincts and things humans understand ’by heart‘.

All in all, the evolving Beyonder went through three different personas; Explorer, Manipulator and Destroyer, all of which the GM can use in adventures involving him.

Quotes

“I am from beyond ! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours ! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish !”

“Do not speak to me in absolutes, Reed Richards. There is nothing I “cannot do”. The force of my will is all-powerful !”

“In my universe I am the one and the many, the nothing and the all. I have always been, and shall always be.”

“I finally realized why I can’t get in touch with the way of things in the multiverse ! It’s because I’m bigger than the multiverse, and more powerful than all of the force in it, of every kind, combined ! As long as I’m here the ’way‘ of the multiverse is my way !”

DC Universe History

In the DC Universe the Beyonder would be an embodiment of the Source (note the equal APs of Omni-Power). His teacher, leading him into his quests for answers and understanding, would have been Metron of the New Gods.

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Notes:
At all times, the Beyonder keeps his APs of Omni-Power actively spread out between a few powers. Amongst the default powers that he commonly uses are Awareness, Bomb, Broadcast Empath, Control, Disintegration, Dispersal, Energy Blast, Fabricate, Force Field, Growth, Hypnosis, Invisibility, Life Sense, Regeneration and Telekinesis. Any other power, not currently in use, may be switched to by use of an Automatic Action. Power Reserve is usable with all Powers and Physical stats.

Bonuses and Limitations:

The Hero Point Fee for using Omni-Power is reduced by 500 HP (the Beyonder can use his Omni-Power to mimic any Power up to a BC of 500 at most freely. All Powers with BC of 0-500 are free to use, and if he were to mimic a Power with BC 750, he’d have to pay 750 – 500 = 250 HPs for that hour) (+14 FC)

Power Reserve is Fatiguing (-1)

Invulnerability also protects against Mental and Mystical attacks (+2)

Bestow has the No RAPs Limit (+5) and Permanent Bonuses (+5)

All Physical powers have no AVs, unless he creates mimicked powers with the Area Effect Bonus, and use the Beyonder’s DEX for aiming (-1)

All Powers and Stats are Elementally Linked to Omni-Power (-1)

Skills:
The Beyonder does not need Skills, but may mimic them as seems fit using Omni-Power (he has several times mimicked the Scientist Skill).

Advantages:
Attractive, Iron Nerves, Lightning Reflexes, Life Support (Does not need to Eat, Drink, Sleep or Breathe), Stability, Misc.: The Beyonder is Outside the loop of Destiny (see below)

Destiny unbound

The Beyonder, like Thanos, Adam Warlock and Captain Mar-Vell is not bound by the normal rules of destiny ; this means that under the right circumstances he can take drastic action to change the course of the multiverse. This gives access to a special reserve of 50 HPs, that can only be accessed during cosmic events.

For instance the Beyonder couldn’t access it when fighting Earth’s heroes, but he could when destroying Death or during the Infinity Gauntlet saga.

Being outside destiny also includes 25 APs of the Obscure power – even the Infinity Gauntlet cannot detect such a character.

The Beyonder of Secret Wars III

According to the event named Secret Wars III all of the Beyonder’s powers were mere illusion, in which case he’s far from omnipotent. Although I’ve completely ignored that storyline for purposes of this write-up, a GM might want to use that version of the Beyonder.

In which case 5 APs is subtracted from all of his Physical stats and all Powers except Acuity, all Bonuses and All Limitations are Exchanged with Illusion of 35+ APs.